Résumé

Ibadan, Nigeria · Open to remote roles

Francis Onah.

Backend & Cloud Infrastructure Engineer

I build fast, secure backend systems and the cloud infrastructure they run on — six years of production experience with Node.js, Go, Kubernetes and AWS. Most recently I led engineering for a Singapore dating app, from the microservices to the Terraform behind them.

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0+
years building production systems
0
companies, 2 continents
CKAD
certified Kubernetes engineer

01 · About

From load-bearing beams to load-bearing APIs.

Portrait of Francis Onah
Ibadan, NG · available

I'm a backend and cloud infrastructure engineer based in Ibadan, Nigeria, with six years of building and running production systems. Most recently I was Lead Software Engineer at Stroll, a Singapore dating app, where I designed its AWS infrastructure with Terraform, led the backend for voice messaging and matching, and built the CI/CD pipelines that shipped it — cutting the monthly cloud bill 25% while the user base grew.

I started out in civil engineering — a First Class degree from the University of Ibadan — before moving into software, and that background still shapes how I work: I like systems I can reason about, infrastructure provisioned as code, and APIs that fail predictably under load. Most of my recent work is Node.js, NestJS and Go on AWS, with Kubernetes and Terraform underneath it. I'm a Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD).

Outside client work I build distributed-systems and infra tooling for fun — see Projects — write about what I learn on Medium, and mentor early-career engineers at Tech4Dev.

  • Based in Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Working hours overlap US & EU teams
  • Education B.Tech. Civil Engineering, First Class
  • Mentoring Tech4Dev, 2026 – present

02 · Skills

The stack, end to end.

Languages & Backend

Node.jsExpress.jsNestJS TypeScriptJavaScriptGo Python

APIs & Realtime

REST APIsGraphQL WebSocketsSocket.IO

Data & Caching

PostgreSQLMongoDB RedisDynamoDB

Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS ECSAWS EKSEC2 LambdaS3RDS TerraformDocker KubernetesHelm

CI/CD & Tooling

GitHub ActionsJenkinsGit

Payments & Integrations

PaystackRemita OpenAI API3rd-party REST

03 · Experience

Where I've shipped.

  1. Stroll — Singapore · Remote

    Feb 2025 – Aug 2026

    Lead Software Engineer

    Senior Software Engineer (Contract) · Nov 2024 – Jan 2025

    • Led backend engineering for a dating app's voice messaging and matching features — NestJS/TypeScript microservices and REST APIs that stayed fast during peak evening traffic.
    • Moved the backend from a monolith to microservices on AWS (ECS, Lambda, DynamoDB) provisioned with Terraform, cutting the monthly cloud bill 25% while the user base grew.
    • Shipped real-time chat with WebSockets (Socket.IO) and an admin analytics dashboard in Python that helped track activity during beta — contributing to a 15% rise in retention.
    • Built GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines, owned production deployments, and mentored junior engineers through code review.

  2. GLAS LLC — Texas, USA · Remote

    Jan 2024 – Aug 2024

    Full Stack Developer

    • Built and ran GLAS Homes, a US home-buying platform, owning both the product and its AWS infrastructure.
    • Redesigned the sign-up flow in React backed by a GraphQL API written in Go — onboarding conversion rose 30%.
    • Built a reusable React/Tailwind component library and shipped features in Next.js/TypeScript that raised user engagement 40%.
    • Deployed with Jenkins and GitHub Actions CI, cutting bugs reaching users by 15%.

  3. Magicaldb Limited — Nigeria · Remote

    Apr 2023 – Dec 2023

    Software Engineer (Team Lead)

    • Led a small team building the REST API behind a web and mobile app with Node.js, Express, TypeScript, MongoDB and the OpenAI API.
    • Designed MongoDB schemas and added Redis caching, making API responses 25% faster.
    • Integrated payment gateway APIs and wrote unit, integration and end-to-end tests covering most of the codebase — 30% fewer serious bugs reached customers.

  4. HealthStack Limited — Nigeria · Remote

    Aug 2022 – Jul 2023

    Full Stack Developer

    • Built React and Node.js features for a healthcare platform, integrating REST APIs with third-party services and cutting response times 10%.
    • Shipped printed point-of-sale receipts for lab tests, drugs and consultations.
    • Added automated tests and GitHub Actions CI — 25% fewer bugs reached patients and clinic staff.

  5. NIPE — Nigeria · Remote

    Jun 2022 – Aug 2022

    Frontend Developer (Contract)

    • Integrated the Remita payment gateway so members could securely pay dues and membership fees online.

  6. Parakletus Hub — Nigeria

    Apr 2021 – Jun 2022

    Backend Developer (Contract)

    • Built the backend of an online learning platform as Node.js/Express/NestJS microservices with MongoDB and PostgreSQL on AWS (S3, EC2, RDS, Lambda).
    • Deployed services as Docker containers on Amazon EKS so the platform stayed available to students.
    • Implemented authentication, authorization and encryption so students and staff only saw records meant for them.

  7. PaxAlpha Limited — Nigeria

    Nov 2020 – Mar 2021

    Software Engineer

    • Built website features with Angular, TypeScript, HTML and CSS that raised user engagement 25%.
    • Integrated Paystack payments, cutting failed transactions 15%.
    • Set up automated testing with GitHub Actions and optimized the codebase, making the site 20% faster.

04 · Projects

Things I've built for the fun of it.

Open source, on GitHub. Infra and distributed-systems tooling I build outside client work.

SearchSync

Go distributed-systems lab: CDC-driven search, a transactional outbox, orchestrated sagas, consumer reliability and full observability — built on Postgres, Debezium, Kafka and Elasticsearch.

GoKafkaDebezium PostgresElasticsearch
View on GitHub →

ClusterDrill

Open-source CKAD practice platform: 600+ hands-on questions graded against a live Kubernetes cluster, a browser terminal and timed mock exams — released as a Helm chart through GitHub Actions.

KubernetesFastAPIHelmCI/CD
View on GitHub →

ClusterDrill Lab

Disposable Kubernetes lab on AWS. Terraform provisions the VPC and EC2 nodes, then a cloud-agnostic bootstrap installs Kubernetes 1.33 with kubeadm, containerd and Cilium over SSH.

TerraformAWSkubeadmCilium
View on GitHub →

atlasDB

Embedded, local-first key-value store in Go with a write-ahead log, vector clocks and peer-to-peer sync.

GoStorage EnginesWAL
View on GitHub →

aperture

Local-first hybrid code search for private repos: AST-aware chunking, BM25 and HNSW vector search fused with RRF, in an offline-by-default Rust CLI/TUI.

RustSearchEmbeddings
View on GitHub →

e-commerce-microservices

E-commerce backend split into independent NestJS and TypeScript microservices.

NestJSTypeScriptMicroservices
View on GitHub →

See everything on GitHub →

05 · Live Activity

Still shipping.

Pulled live from the GitHub API — not a screenshot.

github.com/onahFran6 loading…
  • Fetching recent commits…

06 · Writing

Notes from building things.

Oct 2026 How I Prepared for the CKAD and Scored 93% → Oct 2026 Building ClusterDrill: A CKAD Practice Platform Graded by the Cluster Itself → Oct 2026 Building ClusterDrill Lab: A Disposable, Exam-Realistic Kubernetes Lab on AWS →

Read more on Medium →

07 · Certifications & Education

08 · Contact

Let's build something that holds up under load.

Open to remote backend and cloud infrastructure roles, with hours overlapping US and European teams.

onahfran6@gmail.com Download Résumé